How service crop management could save vineyards in dry years
A recent study on organic vineyards in Occitanie, France, showed how managing service crops can balance their soil-anchoring qualities against vine performance. Among four options studied, one stood out for preventing water stress in the vines.
Adding to the literature around sustainable viticulture and climate change adaptation, a study published in journal OENO One has examined the effect of service crop management on vineyards. Comparing both methods of management and timing of intervention, it sought to identify the effects on vine health through metrics such as yield, vigour and water stress.
In essence, the study examined the trade-off necessary in putting service crops (non-agricultural plants that benefit the vineyard) between rows of vines. Such service crops (also termed cover crops) are known to anchor the soil, preventing erosion, and lessening soil compaction from machinery. However, as an added species in a designated area, they can compete with vines for water.
Over three years from 2022 to 2024, the study assessed the impact of four different means of managing service crops. These varied according to timing (around budburst or one month after budburst) and the method (a mower in combination with superficial tillage or a roller-crimper). There was also a control treatment, consisting of bare soil with tillage employed.
A careful balance
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Although the study cannot be extrapolated to universal inferences, it offers an insight into management practices in Mediterranean climates. The network of seven fields was located in Occitanie, in southern France; they experienced typical Mediterranean conditions of warm dry summers and rainfall concentrated in the winter months. The vineyards were also managed organically – significant, as sustainable practices (particularly regenerative farming) often employ cover crops between rows.
The study supplements anecdotal evidence that cover crops can help vines survive drought – a particular issue with increasingly dramatic heatwaves in southern Europe.
The standout management technique proved to be early intervention using the mower and tillage. This maintained the benefits of the cover crops over wetter winter weather, but caused no water stress or production loss compared to the control treatment. The late interventions and those using the roller-crimper all reduced yields, berry weight and vigour.
The authors, in their conclusions, were keen to stress that the results were context-dependent. The participatory programme, using working farms, meant that a number of variables – for instance, soil type or microclimate – could not be separated from the results.
Yet they did identify statistically significant impacts of these management techniques. Moreover, despite the risks of protocol deviation and data gaps, they found the collaborative approach and collective discussion – inherent to researching with working farms – to have positively impacted the research. Just as important as the scientific data was the proof that such studies have their place in safeguarding vineyards against climate change.
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